National trolls the woke folk

by WH on February 16, 2019 at 8:00am

Photoshopped image credit: Technomage

In a singularly brilliant move to get their message out, National have tweeted an “attack” advertisement about Kiwibuild’s failure to deliver. They have pushed all the correct buttons in wokedom to ensure that the perpetually offended would be offended and would tweet and twerp about it. They have succeeded brilliantly, in spite of Bennett putting on her innocent face and saying it was not about gender. Quote.

A new National Party attack ad concerning KiwiBuild has been slammed as both sexist and incorrect.

But the party says the ad would have worked just as well with the genders switched and have an explanation for a number in the ad some have criticised.

The ad, released on Twitter, shows a young man and woman discussing Labour’s troubled KiwiBuild policy to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years.

The woman begins by being excited by the policy, nodding her head while the man notes that to get to that target Labour would need to build 33 homes a day. She loses her enthusiasm as he explains that the Government have actually only built 33 homes. (A footnote makes clear this was the figure when Labour were 450 days into office. The Government has now built 62 KiwiBuild homes.)

The ad came under heavy fire for being sexist and incorrect – several people have noted online that 33 homes built a day over 10 full years would result in over 120,000 homes – far more than 100,000 .

A spokeswoman for National leader Simon Bridges said the reason 33 homes a day had been used, was to account for public holidays and Sundays. If you divided the number of days that were not public holidays or Sundays over 10 years by 100,000 – you got 33 a day .

Housing Minister Phil Twyford said the ad was “sexist” and if he was National he would ask for a refund. End quote.

Twyford (Labour) trolled and triggered. Quote.

Women’s Minister Julie Anne Genter said the ad reminded her of the film Anchorman.

Former TVNZ political editor Linda Clark sarcastically wrote on Twitter: “Policy is complicated. I needed a man to help me understand it.” Labour MP Kiri Allan agreed with this sentiment enough to retweet it. End quote.

Random former someone trolled and triggered. Quote.

Another user wrote: “I am actually in furious tears over how sexist that National ad is. Blatantly, explicitly, intentionally sexist. How are we meant to move away from a culture of violence towards women when our political rhetoric expressly permits this?” […] End quote.

I missed the bit in the ad when there was violence towards the woman, I shall have to go back and re-watch. Trolled and triggered. Quote.

Former United Future MP Peter Dunne, who served in the last National cabinet, described the ad as “appalling and cringeworthy”. End quote.

Former politician (United Future) trolled and triggered. Quote.

Right-wing lobbyist and commentator Matthew Hooton wrote that the idea was good but the execution terrible.

“You don’t have to be very woke to think maybe it would have been smart to have given the two characters the opposite roles,” Hooton wrote.End quote.

Political commentator trolled and triggered. Quote.

The National Party’s deputy leader and former Womens’ Minister Paula Bennett told TVNZ that the ad “uses a bit of humour to actually get the point across that this is a government that’s failing”.

“It could have been a man, it could have been a woman. I don’t think it’s about gender.”

ActionStation’s Laura O’Connell Rapira asked if perhaps the outrage about the ad was exactly the point, as it would make sure many more people saw the ad.

Indeed, the ad has garnered over 32,500 in 24 hours, far more than earlier videos that explained National’s new tax policy.[…] End quote.

It now appears that if an enthusiastic woman tells a man about something, “Did you hear that Labour is building 100,000 homes to solve the housing crisis?” and he does a quick calculation to respond, “That’s 33 houses every day for the next ten years.” That is sexist and mansplaining.

Or if a woman asks a man a question, “How many have they built so far?” and he simply answers, “In total, 33.” That is sexist and mansplaining.

Women complain men don’t communicate and yet, when they do, it is sexist and mansplaining.

It is really quite difficult to keep up with all these new social norms and rules.

Labour promised to build 10,000 houses in the first year of its flagship housing programme. Like many of its policies, KiwiBuild has failed to deliver. If there’s one thing we’ve learned with this Government, it’s don’t believe the hype. pic.twitter.com/C7DzirO5bz